Spiritual Growth
-
I KNOW I KNOW!
I read Psalm 16 today, a beautiful testimony of David about his God, his Refuge. It took me back once again, to my Hurricane Sally experience. If you’ve read my previous posts (Part 1: Peace Over the Storms, here, Part 2: My Cornerstone here, and Part 3: More Lessons from Hurricane Sally here), you know I said, I THOUGHT the last one was the final in that series. Well, I guess it wasn’t! Processing this experience just takes time. In Psalm 16 (feel free to stop and read it, it’s short), David claims God as his Lord as he prayed for protection. He mentions relying on God’s counsel at night…
-
Why Not Today?
Ever heard God say that to you? Why does this question matter? It mattered to Paul as he wrote from prison in 2 Timothy 4:21, “Make every effort to come before winter…” He said it as well this in v. 9, “Make every effort to come to me soon...” During winter, travel in the Mediterranean usually ceased due to harsh weather. He desperately wanted to see Timothy before it would have been impossible for him to travel. And the end of Paul’s life was was coming fast. TODAY mattered to Paul. It mattered to the man Jesus healed in John 5:1-8 after 38 years of being disabled. Jesus asked Him…
-
More Lessons From Hurricane Sally
I’m till processing and learning from our experience of riding out Hurricane Sally. This is the third, and probably (although I’m not promising) the last post on this. I’d encourage you to read the first two posts (Part 1: Peace Over the Storms, here and Part 2: My Cornerstone here) before you start this third post. Sometimes it takes a while to process an experience and see God’s hand in it all. I believe with all my heart God is sovereign and not one thing happens without His permission as well as His purpose. So I’m warning you, this is not a short post since I process God’s lessons partially…
-
MY Cornerstone!
Photo by Joel Filipe on Unsplash As I write this series following Hurricane Sally, I’d love to encourage you to read the first post, Peace Over the Storms, here before you start this second post. When a building is constructed, it has what is called a cornerstone to make it secure and give direction to the building. It unites two masonry walls and is the starting place for construction. It’s absolutely essential, or indispensable, to the building. Personally, I am so grateful for the cornerstone in the 18 floor (we were on 16) condominium we were in while on vacation in Perdido Key when Hurricane Sally chose make landfall in…
-
Peace Over the Storms
Normally, by now, during our extended time at the beach each fall, I’ve had a number of “beach lessons”. Until today (September 14, the day I began this post), this year I’d not had what I consider a beach lesson, although I’ve had lots of balcony Jesus time. This morning, this was the scene I watched as tropical storm Sally was about to become hurricane Sally. This is the third coastal hurricane we’ve experienced, but it’s not something we ever look forward to by any means! Waves were crashing and, yet, I felt safe sitting on the 16th floor balcony of our condo looking down at the churning water. All…
-
6 Month Check Up
In January, I shared what I felt God had laid on my heart for the new year in Focus 2020 , but during the pandemic, the Lord has expanded my focus and built on what He had already been teaching me. These themes were added to my focus this year…prayer, preparing for the return of Jesus, and bolder witness in the mean time. My D-Group finished studying the book of Revelation during the quarantine. Our isolation, along with the culture of our nation in general, made me want to say, Come on back, Lord! But what He said to me was, “not yet, more need to know me.” And as…
-
Created for Purpose
We are told in Genesis 2 that God formed man from dust…of all things! Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7 Later we are told in chapter 2 that He made woman from the man’s rib! So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to…
-
The Enemy is Alive and Well…But Defeated!
Even though I am continually aware of the influence of the enemy, along with his temptations, in our world today and I even understand that this is expected, more so as Christ’s return draws nearer…but once in a while, I’ve just had enough! After one evening’s disturbing end that included a crisis, my wakeful night included anger at the enemy…again…and continual prayers for his demise! He’s just so mean and my loathing for him just gets stronger each time I see him at work! The next morning, the Lord, reminded me…again…the devil’s work is temporary and his eternal demise will come one day. It hasn’t been long since I finished…
-
Will We Ever Get There?
Do you remember as a child on a long trip ever asking this question? Didn’t the trip seem endless. You ride and ride and with each hill or corner, there’s still miles of road ahead to drive to get to your destination? As a child, when my family drove to visit family in west Texas, my sister and I used to count water towers! It did help to pass the time! Have you ever asked this same question about the prayers of your heart? When will we get there? To the answer, the resolution, the healing. We ask this about prayers we’ve prayed for YEARS. Sometimes we think the Lord…
-
The Beauty of His Creation
If you know me well, or if you follow me (or my daughters) on social media, it doesn’t take long to discover our love for animals. Mine doesn’t include rehabilitating or adopting multitudes of homeless animals like my daughters do, but, none the less, I do love all animals (except for snakes…and that’s biblical, just read Genesis 3). When I was a kid, I would try to pet any animal I could get close to. This led to multiple scratches and bites, including snapping turtle and squirrel! I thought I’d be a vet, but figured out that wouldn’t work since I can’t handle the blood, and the pain of these…